Fifty years ago this month the Falmouth Towage Company's harbour tug Lynch sank while aiding the brand new BP tanker British Sailor 21,000 grt berth on the Eastern wharf.

Lynch under the command of my late father Cyril came into contact with the tanker's propeller and sank in the docks basin. Cyril who was acting tug master was exonerated from all blame by a Board of Enquiry and promoted to tug master some weeks later. The Falmouth Docks and Engineering Company raised the Lynch within weeks of the sinking.

Tug boats are the real characters of any thriving port and this was particularly so in the old days when steam tugs with their smoking funnels gave a certain ambience to the waterfront. The tug Lynch easily recognisable by her exceptionally tall funnel came to the port in 1925.

On that calm January day in 1957 when the German four-masted steel barque Pamir sailed from the port for the last time Lynch helped tow the Cape Horner to sea. The Lynch left Falmouth in tow of the tug Warrior in October 1968 for the breakers' at Cork having given 43 years sterling service.